This invention relates to a device for fixing rectilinear combs in a combing machine.
As is well known, in these machines the purpose of the rectilinear combs is to penetrate into the cloth at that moment in which the tufts are drawn by the drawing rollers during combing, in order to separate those tufts which have just been combed from the following tufts still to be combed. The rectilinear combs consist of a series of adjacent needles fixed to substantially laminar elongate comb segments, which themselves are fixed to respective section bars resting on and locked onto supports rigid with the frame of the gripper unit.
The comb segments fixed to the section bars can be adjusted linearly by screws which screw into a projecting appendix of the section bars so that their ends rest against said supports to define and adjust the position of the combs in terms of height. The section bars are locked individually on said supports by levers or lever hooks at the ends of the section bars.
The combs are easily soiled, as dust residues or other materials or fibres deposit between the needles during combing. The combs must therefore be regularly and frequently cleaned, this being done by releasing the fixing levers of the individual combs and removing the combs for cleaning. The cleaned combs are then remounted and individually locked by the fixing levers. The same operations have to be carried out whenever one or more combs are to be replaced.
These operations, which may appear simple and rapid, result in practice in a considerable time wastage because of the frequency with which cleaning is required.